In Canada, Online Campaign to Protest Gov't's Digital 'Snooping Bill' Turns Nasty

BY ELISABETH FRASER | Wednesday, December 5 2012

 MP Charmaine Borg outside of Canada's parliament (credit: Max Walker)

In Canada the issue of online privacy has become contentious, with experts, law enforcement officials, and legislators sharply divided. Bill C-30, formally called the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, was tabled in the House of Commons in February. The bill proposes expanding police powers so that telecoms and Internet Service Providers would be required to turn over subscriber data without a warrant.

On one side of the debate are digital privacy advocates who say the government should not be able to seize their personal subscriber information without a warrant. On the other side are those who assert that in urgent cases, law enforcement officials should be able to access such information rapidly, in the interest of public protection.

“I think [Bill C-30] is a dangerous piece of legislation that raises serious privacy concerns,” says University of Ottawa professor and Internet guru Michael Geist. “The bill's supporters have consistently failed to provide evidence of problems with the current law, which should be the starting point for discussion.”

In response, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) argues that the bill would provide them with access to crucial information that would help them do their jobs — i.e., catch criminals.

"Do police in Canada support 'unwarranted Internet surveillance' or 'snooping'? Absolutely not!" says Timothy Smith, who handles Government Relations and Strategic Communications for the CACP. “Our concern lies with consistency and timeliness of obtaining basic subscriber information that is needed to advance an investigation and prevent further victimization.”

Smith provided techPresident with a list of incidents involving criminal acts that he claims could have been prevented if the police had been able to access digital information quickly, without having to wait for a warrant. In a case of sexual assault, a woman grabbed her assailant’s cell phone while fleeing the scene of the crime — but was denied justice, because the police had to wait two weeks for a warrant to access the subscriber’s information. By that time the account had been disconnected. Other cases involve child pornography, kidnapping, and homicide.

At the federal level, the ruling Conservative Party is squaring off against the newly elected Official Opposition — the progressive, socialist-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP). The main players could not be more different in terms of age, background and worldview — and the results have been explosive.

Charmaine Borg of the NDP is one of the youngest-ever MPs elected to the House of Commons; the 22 year-old is also the first to be assigned the Digital Issues dossier in the Shadow Parliament — the Official Opposition body responsible for holding the government to account. She is now developing a comprehensive digital strategy for issues that include online privacy, online user agreements and the digital economy.

The bilingual Montreal resident was still an undergraduate at McGill University when she became one of several neophyte politicians who rode the so-called Orange Wave of the 2011 federal elections toParliament Hill (orange is the NDP’s official color). The NDP won 103 of the 308 seats in Parliament, replacing the Bloc Québécois, which advocates sovereignty for the largely Francophone province, as the Official Opposition in Canada’s multi-party system.

Borg’s opposition in the government is Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, of the ruling Conservative Party. Toews, 60, is a veteran politician with a reputation for being a tough-on-crime, law-and-order type. The minister’s office did not respond to interview requests.

It was Toews who tabled Bill C-30 last February. The details of the proposed legislation led his many opponents to label it the "snooping" bill.

A widely publicized online campaign against Bill C-30 quickly turned into a personal attack on Toews that amounted to a serious invasion of his own privacy. The minister probably did not help matters when he accused his opponents of "siding with child pornographers."

The online protests began as a lighthearted Twitter campaign hashtagged #TellVicEverything. Users bombarded Toews's account with tongue-in-cheek tweets that purported to detail the minutiae of their daily lives. A reporter for a policy wonk’s website aggregated some of the more amusing results, including one from the Liberal Party's candidate for leader, MP Justin Trudeau (@justinpjtrudeau, son of the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau). Trudeau tweeted: “Dear @ToewsVic: Last night I promised my wife I'd wake up early for yoga, but repeatedly snooze-buttoned instead. #TellVicEverything.”

But the campaign turned ugly when an anonymous Internet user launched a Twitter account under the handle @Vikileaks30 and used it to reveal intimate and embarrassing details of Toews’s divorce from his wife and subsequent marriage to their family babysitter, whom he had impregnated.

The media soon discovered that the anonymous tweeter was Liberal Party staffer Adam Carroll. He apologized and resigned, but has since been re-rehired and is again working for the party.

Borg says she opposed the tactics of the Vikileaks campaign. "I think it’s a pity, because the whole Vikileaks scandal took a lot of focus off the real issue — which is that the government wants to spy on you." Borg added that Bill C-30 raised many questions revolving around personal privacy issues, voicing concern that the Conservative Party's position could lead to a serious increase in online privacy violations.

Nevertheless, the bill’s progress through Parliament seems to have halted since the campaign was launched. But whether or not C-30 is permanently stalled remains to be seen.

"Ever since the public uprising that ensued, the government has kind of put (C-30) aside, and right now it’s just sitting in a drawer somewhere," says Borg. "I think the Conservative government is so embarrassed by it that they won’t try bringing this bill back in its current form, but people need to remember that it dates back to the previous Liberal government. It keeps coming back before the House in new forms — so it’s something I’m keeping my eye on."

"[The police] are clearly asking for a way to accelerate the process of obtaining a warrant," says Borg of law enforcement officials who back C-30. "If that’s the main issue, there are two sides to this. There is a need to update language concerning laws that govern wiretapping. Currently there is no digital language in the laws. But there should be ways to obtain warrants without invading our privacy, which is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

Borg highlighted differences in the laws and attitudes governing online privacy in Canada from those of the United States. "While we're one step ahead in some respects, we are one step behind in others," she said.

"We're ahead in that we actually do have an online privacy law and a Privacy Commissioner. In the United States, the FTC can impose fines if they rule a company has been at fault or deceptive in its practices — our Privacy Commissioner does not have those powers," says Borg. "That is why you see these massive lawsuits [in Canada], where people have to go to court when they find a company has acted improperly, because here in Canada there is a lack of legislation [governing the issue]."

With C-30’s future uncertain, Borg has no plans to back down on the issue. "Ultimately, it’s about the Conservative Party proving they really are committed to open government and protecting online privacy," says Borg. "And first, they need to demonstrate they understand what that means."

Elisabeth Fraser is a Canadian journalist.

Personal Democracy Media is grateful to the Omidyar Network for its generous support of techPresident's WeGov section.

Montreal Hackathon Aims to Combat Government Corruption

BY ELISABETH FRASER | Monday, November 12 2012

 Hackons la Corruption (credit: QuebecOuvert)

This past weekend, 200 tech geeks — including 50-70 developers — gathered in Montreal to root out government corruption, one hack at a time.

Hackons la Corruption 2012 (Hacking Corruption 2012), billed as North America’s first anti-corruption hackathon, was held on November 10 and 11 at a community center in Montreal's east end.

Participants from Quebec and elsewhere attended seminars, munched on pizza, and worked in teams to create projects aimed at exposing government behavior and improving open data access.

“The climate in Quebec right now is one of astonishment at the amount of corruption. We think that in the 21st century, we need to use 21st century technology to fight corruption,” said organizer Jonathan Brun, one of six co-founders of QuebecOuvert, the group behind the event.

The hackathon, months in the planning, teamed hackers and challenged them to scrape existing information databases in hopes of raising public awareness regarding government accountability.

Amongst the projects presented was DonsPolitiques, an effort to link political donations by individuals to the companies they work at. The idea was to track companies that might be encouraging their employees to give political donations, then reimbursing them by adding the money to their salaries or handing out bonuses (corporate political donations are illegal in Canada). DonsPolitiques uses a database of political donations and LinkedIn to identify where people are working when they give political donations, and to find companies that might be trying to influence the legislative process or awarding of contracts.

Another platform, ContratsNet, provides visualization of how contracts are given out in Montreal by jurisdiction, by borough, or by type. “We are trying to build a very broad database of information from all the provincial legislators,” says Michael Mulley, founder of OpenParliament.ca, a website that features easy-to-access information on the activities of Canada's federal government.

The timing for an anti-corruption hackathon is certainly right. Quebec has been rocked by a series of spectacular scandals over recent months. Long-rumored ties between provincial and municipal governments, the construction industry, and the mafia have been brought to light by various media reports — and, most notably, by the Charbonneau Commission, named for presiding justice France Charbonneau. Though still in its infancy, the commission has released one bombshell revelation after another.

“The best is yet to come,” declared Hackons la Corruption keynote speaker Jacques Duchesneau, referring to the Charbonneau Commission revelations. The former Montreal Chief of Police and current provincial representative for the Québec riding (electoral district) of Saint-Jerôme was hired by the provincial government to look into rumoured construction industry corruption in 2010. In 2011, he blew the whistle on the relationship between the mob and Québec officials with a shocking report he leaked to the media. Duschesneau was subsequently fired.

“We’ve only heard four witnesses. Actually, we’re expecting about 75, so hold your breath,” Duscheneau told techPresident.

So far, the commission has heard allegations about safes at Montreal City Hall so overstuffed with cash that the doors could not be closed; of cash payments to mobsters smuggled via sock-stuffing, and of a 3 percent kickback "tax" on construction contracts awarded under the stewardship of Montreal city engineer Gilles Surprenant. Surprenant claimed he spent large sums of these illegal payments at a Montreal casino, in an attempt to repay taxpayers.

Perhaps most chillingly, the commission heard about “Mr. Sidewalk” a.k.a Nicolo Milioto, a construction company owner. According to Martin Dumont, a high level organizer for Montreal’s governing Union Montreal party, Mr. Sidewalk threatened to make Dumont a part of his pavement if he asked too many questions.

Over the past days, top municipal officials have been falling like dominos. Montreal mayor Gérard Tremblay and Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt took medical leaves from work, then resigned. Vaillancourt’s home was recently raided by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad. Mascouche mayor Robert Marcotte is already facing charges of fraud and corruption, although he has yet to resign; he continues to collect a government salary, even as his own party disavows him.

Most recently Michael Applebaum, mayor of Montreal borough Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace and deputy to Mayor Tremblay, resigned from the city's executive committee. Applebaum cited a 2004 report — which, he says, proves Montreal has long been paying 30-40 percent more than other municipalities for road work.

All this comes on the heels of the Maple Spring, the student protest movement that erupted in February 2012, in response to the government's plan to raise university tuition fees by 75 percent. The movement reached its zenith in May, when an estimated 400,000 citizens took to the streets, banging pots and pans. The government responded by passing Bill 78, an emergency law that required a police permit for demonstrations of more than 50 people and suspended classes at universities where students were on strike. The government also deployed riot police who were recorded using tear gas, carrying out mass arrests and initiating beatings to break up protests. TheCanadian Association for Civil Rights issued a strongly worded statement criticizing the Quebec government for violating fundamental rights, using excessive force and restricting civil liberties.

So, how can a hackathon improve matters?

“Well, for one thing, this allows me to be a little bit more optimistic, because it will replace the cynicism that is taking root right now in the province of Quebec with something positive,” says Jean Fortier, former President of Montreal’s City Executive Committee. He says corruption at City Hall goes back a long time, and while he was “not at all” surprised by the revelations that have been unearthed so far by the Charbonneau Commission, having his worst suspicions confirmed moved him to tears one morning.

“I think the solution anywhere, either in private industry, or institutions, or public sectors, is activity-based management,” says Fortier. In order to do that, “You have to have basic, common data, that is available everywhere in the United States from town to town from city to city.”

In a speech delivered at the hackathon, the Sunlight Foundation's* James Turk spoke about theOpenStates project, which provides data on U.S. state legislators. Turk said the platform was so popular that many governments prefer its apps for iPhone and iPad to their own software.

“Data that’s in a book isn’t truly accessible; it needs to be available online,” said Turk. OpenStates uses only information that is in the public domain, although sometimes friendly informants may guide them to a certain obscure website, or provide them with lists of people who were invited to political fundraisers. Turk showed the crowd a model of the scrapers his team uses to obtain information. “Don’t be scared, it’s actually pretty simple,” he laughed.

Optimism is a good thing, and Hackons la Corruption 2012 can be viewed at the very least as an interesting event — as well as a positive development . The hackathon was well covered by the local media and as such did succeed in raising awareness about government corruption, and the means of sourcing information to empower ordinary citizens, but the jury is very much out on the question of its overal impact. The developers who presented DonsPolitiques, the project that aspired to link political donations by individuals to the companies they worked for, did not produce an app at the event. But on the other hand, ContratsNet won the grand prize, with the developers — who were working on their project for two weeks before the hackathon — expecting to push forward toward a launch.

The overall attitude at the hackathon seemed to be be, better baby steps than no steps. “The only way we can win over corruption is to get the information that we need,” said Duschesneau. “People have all the reasons in the world to get upset. But a long journey always starts with a first step. Today, I think, is a first step in the right direction.

*techPresident publisher Andrew Rasiej and editor Micah Sifry are senior advisors to the Sunlight Foundation.

Personal Democracy Media is grateful to the Omidyar Network for its generous support of techPresident's WeGov section.

Broken ticket machine leads to standoff

Police intervene in the recent standoff between Yaelburton Steinberg and Alexis Nihon parking lot staff.
Published on June 11, 2011
Published on June 11, 2011
Elisabeth Faure
Police called in to settle Alexis Nihon parking dispute
For Yaelburton Steinberg and his girlfriend, a recent night out turned into a nightmare at the Alexis Nihon parking lot. Steinberg claims his car was held hostage for three hours — all because of a broken ticket machine.
Topics :
Alexis Nihon , Canadian Tire , Ford Escape
“My girlfriend and I left work around 5:30,” says Steinberg. Both work across the street. They had dinner reservations and decided to park in the Alexis Nihon lot to save time. “That was our first mistake,” says Steinberg.
The following is Steinberg’s version of events.
He says the ticket machine at the parking lot entrance was broken. Unable to get a ticket, Steinberg tried pressing the “call” button, and got no response. There was no attendant in the parking lot booth, and a “back in five minutes” sign was in the window. The bar to enter the parking lot was raised, so Steinberg and his girlfriend drove up into the lot and parked.
Alexis Nihon policy is shoppers spending $30 or more get two hours of free parking. Steinberg made a $39.99 purchase at Canadian Tire. He returned to his car with his girlfriend and drove towards the parking lot exit.
The attendant had returned to the booth. Steinberg explained why he didn’t have a ticket, and showed his receipt to the attendant. The attendant said Steinberg was required to pay a $20 “lost ticket” fee. “I didn’t feel he was acting professionally,” Steinberg says.
The attendant refused to raise the exit bar, and a standoff ensued.
Mall security arrived, and told Steinberg to pay the $20. He refused, and the police were called. “We knew it would take a long time for the police to arrive, as they have real emergencies to deal with,” says Steinberg.
The pair waited in the parking lot for three hours until police arrived. During that time, Steinberg says he received dirty looks from other cars coming in and out of the lot. “It was embarrassing, as I have never been arrested or been thought of as the criminal type,” says Steinberg, noting he was wearing dress pants and Prada shoes. “I thought to myself, ‘Do I look that dishonest sitting in a new Ford Escape?’” he says.
While waiting for the police, Steinberg claims he observed the attendant refusing to act when a mall-goer told him there was a fire in the building, and allowing a woman to leave the lot without paying because she had changed her mind about making a purchase.

Mall administration offers to refund $5.25
When the cops showed up, the attendant asked them to arrest Steinberg. The police instead told the attendant to let Steinberg exit the lot. But the attendant insisted Steinberg pay the nightly rate of $5.25 (by now it was after 9 p.m.). Steinberg reluctantly agreed, and drove away.
Gaétan Prudhomme, the Alexis Nihon’s General Manager of Operations, spoke to Steinberg by phone on June 7 and offered his apologies. Steinberg says Prudhomme offered him a refund on the $5.25 parking fee, and said he would put a note in the parking lot attendant’s file.
That’s not enough, says Steinberg. “I told him it was not worth it for me to go collect $5.25,” he says, adding if one of his clients had a similar complaint, he would have offered them a gift card. Overall, Steinberg says the “humiliation and unprofessionalism” behind the whole situation continues to bother him. He says he will still shop at Alexis Nihon — but only because he works across the street.

City can’t stop Oratory development
Published on June 11, 2011
Published on June 11, 2011
Elisabeth Faure
Residents post video showing recently cleared wooded lot
A group of Westmount residents is upset that St. Joseph’s Oratory is cutting down trees behind the church to make room for property development, and wants the City of Westmount to do something about it.
Topics :
Westmount
“Everywhere we turn, we get the same answers,” stated the group Citoyens Westmount in an email to the Examiner. “(We get told) ‘There is nothing we can do .... The Oratory sold the land and the City gave the permits.’”
The group argues that the area, long a sanctuary for birds and other wildlife, is a valuable green space. In a video titled “Greed or Power” posted on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmX4iGpANMw), the group shows before-and-after scenes of a once-lush forested area, now barren land.
The group says Westmount can and should intervene in the matter, arguing that in the past the City intervened to protect land adjacent to this plot following pressure from local residents.
Not so, counters city councillor Patrick Martin, who represents District 1, where the lot in question is located. Martin says he is distraught by the tree-cutting, but says there is nothing the City can do in this case.
“The Oratory has owned a large number of building lots in Westmount for decades,” says Martin, adding that the church has always paid taxes on the land in anticipation of one day selling the lots for housing to support the Oratory's maintenance.
“They have every right to build houses on (the lots),” he says.
Martin also points out that all of this information is a matter of public record, and it was reported in local papers when the Oratory decided to put the lots up for sale roughly three years ago.
Furthermore, Martin contends the City of Westmount has never intervened in the sale or purchase of the Oratory’s building lots, or with construction plans.
“In one case that I know of on Lexington, neighbouring residents then bought an adjacent lot in order to integrate it with their own,” says Martin. The residents opted to keep the lot mostly forested.
Martin says to his knowledge no other groups of residents have come forward with similar purchase offers, with the result that some land was purchased by a developer. He says the Oratory has agreed to leave 14 of its lots undeveloped to create a buffer zone between the church and residents. The City supports this via a 25-year deal, swapping land protection for tax concessions.
Nevertheless, Martin maintains the loss of green space is “lamentable.” Quoting Joni Mitchell, he sums up the situation by saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

Tag the dog
Published on June 15, 2011
Published on June 15, 2011
Elisabeth Faure
Westmount’s canine ID card policy angers owners
Westmount’s new policy of making owners carry plasticized identity cards for their dogs is meeting resistance from Westmounters and non-residents alike.
Topics :
Westmount house , Concordia University , Westmount , Verdun , NDG
Sent by mail to Westmount license holders three weeks ago, the cards come with the purchase of a $20 dog license, and are available to non-residents for $40 each.
Architect David Ludmer dotes on his Dalmatian, Bailey (he calls her Bea or Lady Bea), and refers to her as “the love of my life.” For him, the new law doesn’t make sense.
“I think it’s a level of complexity a person doesn’t need when you are trying to maintain your best friend,” says Ludmer. He thinks between making sure your animal is healthy, happy, and well-fed - plus, “making sure you have enough poop bags in your pocket,” dog owners have more pressing concerns.
Most of the time, Ludmer carries his card in his pocket, but admits that some mornings he forgets it and worries he’ll get fined by Public Security officers.
Sylvie Prud’homme lives in Verdun with her two Burmese Mountain dogs. “We go everywhere together,” she says. On weekends, the trio visit friends in NDG, Île Perrot, and Île Bizard — but Westmount is no longer on the list.
Since the new law, Prud’homme won’t go into Westmount with her dogs. She says her friends will have to come visit her in Verdun instead.
Prud’homme acknowledges the $40 cost for a non-resident card “isn’t the end of the world,” but says a principle is at stake. “What if every neighborhood decides to do this?” she asks.
Prud’homme’s decision to boycott Westmount carries a professional impact — she teaches dog obedience classes and often brings her dogs along for demonstrations. She won’t be making any more Westmount house calls.
Journalist and Concordia University instructor Elias Makos lives next to Westmount’s border. He often takes Otis, his Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, to the Westmount Park dog run. “This whole new Westmount rule ... it’s not rational,” says Makos. “There is no common good being served by this.”
For Makos, getting a special tag to walk Otis a few blocks from home represents an overly bureaucratic approach. He questions the need for such a rule. “It’s as though someone is trying to come up with a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” he says.
“Who decided this?”
City of Westmount officials insist that the ID tags make perfect sense.
“This is only enforcing a policy in place since 1946,” says City Councillor Cynthia Lulham, who is also Commissioner of Parks and Urban Planning. “In Westmount, you always had to have a Westmount dog license.”
Lulham says the City is cracking down in response to dog owners who claim non-residents are overcrowding dog runs. “If everyone has a dog license, then we know who is using our facilities,” says Lulham. She adds it’s easier for City inspectors to read the identity cards, since some dogs don’t like getting approached by strangers.
Lulham, who owns two rescue dogs (Bobo the Chihuahua and Kiki the Bichon), is aware some don’t like the new rule, but maintains she wants to give it a try, and promises the City will apply the law in a reasonable manner. “We won’t be patrolling the borders of NDG,” she says with a laugh.
Still, the public outcry against the ID cards remains loud and clear. One dog owner took the protest to Twitter this week, urging owners to congregate in Westmount Park this weekend and encourage their canines to bespoil its grounds. The suggested title of the event rhymes with “Sit-In.”

Adbusters inaugurated

Ad Just declares cultural war with a series of creative acts and covert ops coming soon to our city’s streets

by LIZ FAURE

May 26, 2011

MADDER MEN: Erik Chevrier and Jay Lemieux Photo by Micheal Beaulieu

Agroup of Montreal adbusters is turning up the heat on companies they claim are wrecking our city’s culture. Through culture jams and stealth campaigns, they’re hoping to raise awareness and ruin commercials along the way.

“We’ve declared cultural war on ads in the city,” says Jay Lemieux. He’s with the Montreal Infringe ment Festival and heritage lobby group Save the Main. Both are part of Ad- Just (ad- just.ca), a loose coalition of various cultural groups opposed to big advertising. “I’ve been looking at ads in this city since 2004, and they’re becoming more and more invasive,” says Lemieux, who is making a documentary on the topic.

Ad -Just has plenty of targets to choose from. As festival season gets underway and corporate logos pop up around town, Ad -Just is planning lots of creative (ahem) civil disobedience to achieve their goals. Tactics will range from live street performances to viral videos. Covert operations may or may not include stencils, stickers and spray paint.

One thing Ad -Just dislikes? Billboards, particularly in the Plateau. Following a borough wide bill board ban last fall, ad companies fought back, challenging the ban with a lawyer’s letter.

Mile End city councillor Alex Norris, who calls billboards “visual pollution,” says that there has been no follow up in the wake of the letter. The companies were given a deadline of one year to take the bill boards down, so they will likely stay up through the summer. Whether they respect the deadline remains to be seen.

Another Ad -Just enemy? YUL- Lab, a consortium of local advertising agencies that promotes Montre al to international corporations as the ideal “human laboratory” in which to test their campaigns. “It’s basically saying, ‘We’re going to take your money and use you for experiments,’” says Erik Chevrier, not ing that YUL- Lab receives some provincial funding. Chevrier, who is helping Lemieux with his doc, is the founder of Ad- Just. His Master’s thesis was a critical study of advertising, and his PhD focuses on alternative economics. Chevrier doesn’t think the province should fuel YUL.

“We should be proud in Montreal, we have the creative DNA to service the world,” counters Yanik Deschênes, president of the Association des agences de publicité du Quebec (AAPQ), which represents 68 Quebec advertising agencies and oversees the YUL -Lab. Advertising is a $5 billion a year industry chez nous. Deschênes recently met with Chevrier and Lemieux to discuss their concerns.

Deschênes argues that the big advertising Ad- Just is targeting is on its way out. “The consumer now has control,” he says. “It’s not about interrupting, noise…having your brand be everywhere.” Deschênes says media fragmentation means the future of advertising lies in giving consumers an emotional, one on one connection to the brand.

“The meeting went well, but I don’t really see how we can bridge our differences,” says Chevrier. “We are against what [Deschênes] is promoting.” Ad -Just plans to continue opposing the YUL- Lab, and to follow through with their summer ad attacks.

What about people who argue that there are more pressing issues than visual pollution, like real pollu tion or homelessness? Lemieux replies, “This city and its culture belong to all of us. People should care, because when you go to a big festival and there’s tons of ads everywhere, what they are really trying to do is brand your memories. What’s next? Branding our dreams?” ■

Spray can crackdown

NDG councillors butt heads with the graffiti community over a proposed paint ban for minors

by ELISABETH FAURE

May 5, 2011

MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE: Graffiti artist Regimental Oneton at work behind the No Damn Good skate park/shop
Photo by SHARON DAVIES

The ongoing battle between the city and street artists may soon advance to the provincial front.

At an April 4 borough meeting, NDG councillors approved a motion asking Quebec’s government to enact an under-18 spray-can ban, citing graffiti’s “negative impact” on the neighbourhood.

It’s part of Operation Graffiti, a borough-wide initiative. Loyola councillor Susan Clarke heads up the file. “Banning or controlling the sale of spray paint is just one of many measures to deal with the problem,” she says. She claims that the borough spends $600,000 a year cleaning graffiti from public spaces, and that graffiti was one of the “most important” issues she heard about from constituents while campaigning.

Sterling Downey, co-founder of the annual Under Pressure graffiti festival, doesn’t think much of Operation Graffiti, starting with its title. “Wow. Who thought of that name?” Downey wonders. “It sounds like it was created by people who know nothing about the subject.”

Once a vandal, now a graffiti artist, 38-year-old Downey works with city officials and youth to create platforms for dialogue about graffiti. He thinks officials need to consult with the graffiti community before moving ahead with ban. “The public doesn’t realize that the majority of people doing graffiti aren’t minors. How about Operation Intelligence?”

Clarke insists that many minors are active vandals. Downey argues that NDG sends mixed messages by holding legal graffiti workshops while they’re cracking down on vandalism, pointing to an event in Benny Park on Oct. 23, 2010. Clarke defends the workshop’s success, and says the “body language” of some participants led her to believe that they were the same kids doing illegal tagging in the borough.

REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE

Melissa Proietti’s Master’s thesis focused on graffiti as an educational tool for youth. “As far as a ban being an effective method, I believe that attempts to repress people of any age group leads to resistance,” she says. “That’s especially true for adolescents, who are trying to form their identity.” Proietti thinks a spray-paint ban will only provide more of a challenge to teens doing illegal graffiti, increasing its allure and blocking constructive dialogue between young street artists and the community at large.

Graffiti complaints in NDG have grown louder since last summer, when the war memorial in Girouard Park was tagged, drawing the ire of residents. The young tagger was later apprehended by a local veteran, at a (legal) neighbourhood graffiti workshop. Projet Montréal CDN/NDG councillor Peter McQueen, the lone opposition member on council, responded by demanding a spray-paint ban. McQueen calls graffiti a “serious crisis” in NDG.

A spokesperson for Projet confirms that the party is considering a ban, as well as a proposal to charge deposits on spray paint. Unreturned deposits would go into a fund for graffiti clean-up.

For Downey, the suggested ban exposes a fundamental misunderstanding of graffiti culture. He says determined teens will find a way to get their hands on spray cans, regardless of the law. “Last time I checked, you can’t buy cigarettes or alcohol if you’re under 18 either.” He adds that there are plenty of ways to create graffiti without spray paint, and worries that a ban would dis courage younger vandals from becoming legitimate artists when they’re older.

Clarke agrees that Operation Graffiti isn’t the ultimate solution to making graffiti go away, “but it’s one more quiver in the bow, if you will.”

TRAGEDY AND PROGRESS

The proposed ban comes at a hard time for the graffiti community, following a year book-ended by tragedy. In November 2009, 19-year-old Brian Kachur was killed in an alleged tagging dispute (graffiti writers interviewed for this article questioned this account of events), and almost exactly one year later, three teens lost their lives in a VIA train accident while walking on train tracks by the Turcot Yards, a popular spot for graffiti painters. Both the dangers of railways and of graffiti culture in general are mentioned in the Operation Graffiti motion.

Downey thinks the media has sensationalized both events, giving ammunition to graffiti opponents. He was deeply saddened to learn of the VIA deaths, but maintains, “If you ban the sale of spray paint, you’re not going to prevent further accidents.”

Clarke argues that the ban would be a useful tool in the battle against illegal graffiti, and hopes to see progress on the file when she meets Quebec Justice Minister Kathleen Weil (the MNA for NDG) sometime in June.

Proietti is disappointed that the anti-graffiti movement is focusing on negative stereotypes of the culture as a whole. “There are a lot of positive initiatives taking place right now, for change,” she says. “The media could do more to cover this. We do have people who are involved—youth, artists, educators —who are passionate, who care. There’s a lot in our community to be proud of.” ■